Imran Siddiqi (born 7 September 1957) is an Indian geneticist. Currently, he is a group leader at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and heads a research group.

Education

In 1981, Siddiqi completed his Master of Science in chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Afterwards, his research, under the guidance of prof. Franklin Stahl, focused on

genetic recombination Genetic recombination (also known as genetic reshuffling) is the exchange of genetic material between different organisms which leads to production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent. In eukary ...

in bacteriophage, which was the topic of his dissertation. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in 1989. Siddiqi's postdoctoral work was carried out in

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

, situated in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Career

Siddiqi's research is predominantly in the areas of

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar worki ...

, plant development and genetic recombination. His research has shown a lot of promise and progress in the areas of

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately ...

, gametogenesis and

apomixis In botany, apomixis is asexual reproduction without fertilization. Its etymology is Greek for "away from" + "mixing". This definition notably does not mention meiosis. Thus "normal asexual reproduction" of plants, such as propagation from cutt ...

(asexual reproduction) in plants. The fact that the seeds of high-yielding hybrid plants often fail to produce the same beneficial traits of the parent plants has been a limiting factor in revolutionizing agriculture, as it inhibits the hybrid traits from propagating through seeds. Major advances in these areas will help in the development of new plant breeding techniques, which will produce exact genetic clones of hybrid plants by engineering apomixis. From 1992, he is a scientist at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. He was also responsible for the formation of a plant genetics research group and heads Siddiqi's lab at CCMB. Furthermore, he is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Genetics,

BMC Plant Biology BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific open access publisher that produces over 250 scientific journals. All its journals are published online only. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open a ...

and Journal of Integrative Plant Biology.

Awards and honors

In 2008, he was elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he was awarded the Infosys Prize, in the Life Sciences Category, by the Infosys Science Federation for his contributions to improve agriculture. In the same year, he was also elected as fellow of

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siddiqi, Imran Living people 1957 births Indian molecular biologists Indian Muslims 20th-century Indian botanists Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy IIT Bombay alumni Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Indian Institute of Science alumni Indian geneticists